OSCE head may make expert examination of the case of political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich

On August 4, Alyaksandr Kamaruoski and Aleh Vouchak, co-heads of the organizing committee on creation “Defenders of Motehrland”, sent a letter to OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Dora Bakoyannis through the OSCE Office in Minsk.

The authors of the statement, also sent to www.charter97.org, ask the OSCE chairperson to investigate the examination of the criminal case of Mikalai Autukhovich carried out by a German expert on the initiative of the OSCE Office in Minsk.

“We appeal to you in relation with the situation around the report of Dr Martin Finke presented to the OSCE Office in Minsk on the criminal case against Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau, and Uladzimir Asipenka, the entrepreneurs arrested in Vaukavysk, Belarus, on February 8, 2009. Human rights activists in Belarus think the arrest was politically motivated and are struggling for conducting an open trial and independent investigation of this case.

As it became known, Doctor of Law Martin Finke arrived in Minsk in June 2009 on the invitation of the OSCE Office with an aim, according to the OSCE Office press release, to consider if the criminal case contains violations of human rights and misuse of the criminal procedure. Dr Finke didn’t meet with the defence while preparing the report and, according to him, had access only to a part of the materials of the case.

At the moment, information with reference to Dr Finke’s report is being spread among the European institutions. It is said the Dr Finke examined the case of Autukhovich, Lyavonau, Asipenka and didn’t find any procedural violations in it, so apprehensions of human rights activists on political motives of the arrest are groundless. However, Dr Finke himself told in an interview to Radio Svaboda that he couldn’t stand there were no procedural violations in the case of Autukhovich.

We express great concern over the fact that the report by Dr Finke is being used to prejudice the European institutions against Autukhovich, Lyavonau, and Asipenka and prepare the ground for a closed trial, by that depriving three entrepreneurs from Vaukavysk of the only opportunity to prove their innocence.

In this relation, we join the letter of our colleagues from “Young Front” they sent you on July 27, 2009 and ask you to investigate the details of preparing and spreading the report by Dr Finke on the results of the examination if this complies with the rules of the OSCE.”

Alyaksandr Kamarouski and Aleh Vouchak ask to say on what ground Dr Finke received the access to the materials of the criminal case against Autukhovich, Lyavonau, Asipenka, as articles 198 and 229 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus might be violated during preparing and spreading the report; say the names of the Belarusian and OSCE officials who contributed to violation of the law of Belarus and/or OSCE standards on human rights and a rule-of-law state, if this will be found out; say the names of the Belarusian and OSCE officials who contributed to spreading incomplete or wrong information that violates the rights of Autukhovich, Lyavonau, and Asipenka, if it will be found out; publish the report by Dr Finke or its part if the report contains the materials, forbidden for publishing before a trial, in order to put an end to speculations on the questions to the expert, the volume of information he had and his conclusions.